The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-11-22
Affermoon SessiOn.

The House reassembled at 1 :05.
Noble Castle urged that the two great
questions which members should keep be
fore them were: Is or is not this question
of the bonds between the Hawaiian Gov
eminent and the subscribers? He con-
tended that it was And, is the matter of
the 9I5, 900 between the Hawaiian Govern
ment and its agents? He held that it was.
Minister Brown said that Noble Baldwin
had tried to impress the House with the
belief that Armstrong, the syndicate and
Mattheson were one and the same, but the
facts did not warrant the assumption. The
firm of MatthesOn was respectable bank
ing house; the Government had had no
, direct communication with them. 1t had
been said that the syndicate was a myth.
He endorsed that. The only person whom
they knew in the matter was Armstrong
who, acting as the agent of this Govern
ment, had sold the bonds to the public
The proceeds went into the bank as a de-
post. 1t had been stated in stentorian
tones by Noble Waterhouse that Arm
strong stole SIS, 900.
Noble Waterhouse-I didn't say that
Minister Brown-Well, the syndicate
OI Iuc SAKE vi duIllC GQdG Gn0y
did What was the remedy proposed?
Why, that we should Immediately go and
| steal it from somebody else If it could be
! got back from the syndicate, by all means
| get it, but when proposal was made by
Reform legislator to go on to the bondhold-
| ers he said no; two wrongs did not make a
right.
| Noble WaterhOuse-I never said so.
Minister Brown said that if this gentle
| man had made improper charges they must
| go to him in the regular way. 1t was not
| likely the money would now be found III the
hands of those who had the handling of this
matter. It was now III the hands of the
bondholders, to whom we must in good
| faith deliver the bonds
| Noble Widemann pointed out that there
! had been departures from precedent estab-
! lished by similar laws which had been placed
| upon the Statute book since 1860. The law
passed on September 1, 1886, permitted the
| bonds to be issued at a discount; the sec
! ond law went further in iniquity, in so far
| as it pledged the public revenue. The up
! shot of that would be the same as in Egypt
! if we broke faith. We had no credit in
London until the revenue was pledged and
he wished we never had any credit there,
because we could readily obtain all we
needed here. On the 9th or 18th of July,
| 1885, the speaker was in London, and
gentleman said to him: g Your two million
loan is all ready" He himself knew moth
ing about it. The first week in August an
announcement appeared in an English pa
per to the effect that an agent.from the
| Hawaiian Islands had arrived in New York
| to place loan of 81, 900 300. This law was
! passed September 1st. He left it to the
| House to Judge, then, where this loan was
! conceived. 1t was conceived by somebody
! to make good thing out of it. In Septem-
Der an article appeared in the London
''Times" on Gibson's report Though it
did not refer in SO many words to the Paci-
| fic Empire scheme, yet one who knew the
! circumstances could tell that was wha5 was
alluded to. He believed that was part of
the 1niquity in which this loan business was
conceived. No one in the House had any
doubt that the money was honestly paid by
the English public, and they should now
have their bonds for the sake of saving our
national honor. He should call them hon
est creditors and ourselves honest debtors.
In the transfer somebody got hold of the
money and distracted some. He would be
very glad to get it back but the proposal
was made to take it from the honest cred
itors, which was not fair. The next ques-
ton was, could we by any possibility keep
this money from them for the sake of saw
ing ourselves? These bondholders would
certainly be protected by their Government
We were weak and could not fight them,
and should certainly have to pay eventu
ally. The idea of sending gentleman to
London to make terms with them he
thought impract1cable, because directly he
got there they would take them by the au-
thority of law.
Rep. Kinney pointed out that the de-
livery would not be valid until the gentle
man had countersigned them.
Noble Townsend said that the different
views held were due to their being based on
different premises. If all could agree that
we were now dealing, not with the syndi-
cate or Matheson, but with the English
public, all would then agree that the bonds
must be delivered. If this scrip were
held as the pledge of the Hawaiian
Government as representing those bonds,
then there could be but one conclusion.
He would therefore support the bill as pre-
scented or with, the amendment of sending
a representative to investigate. He did
not believe the ELS 900 was a legitimate
charge. 1t was not according to the law as
interpreted by our Supreme Court, and if
that Interpretation did not stand in Eng
land we should lose it. He was inclined to
think, however, that 1t would stand, in
which case we should stand chance of get
ting the money back.
Noble Wilder said he was at present I'M
der cloud. He was trying to build a rail-
way. He went to London to obtain the
money and was within twenty-four hours